Egyptian activist Mahienour El-Massry receives international rights award

Ahram Online , Friday 31 Oct 2014

El-Massry dedicated the award she received in Italy to fellow activists still in prison

Mahienour El-Massry
Mahienour El-Massry, revolutionary activist (Photo: Mahienour's official Facebook page)

Egyptian activist Mahienour El-Massry received the 2014 Ludovic Trarieux international human rights award in Florence on Friday.

El-Massry was announced as the winner of the award in June while in prison in Egypt serving a two-year sentence for organising an unauthorised protest. Her sentence was reduced and then suspended in September.

In her acceptance speech, the lawyer dedicated the award to the eight other activists who were convicted with her in the same case, but remain in prison.

She also dedicated it to others imprisoned activists, many of whom had, like El-Massry, been jailed for violating the controversial law which bans unauthorised demonstrations.

"Being a lawyer opens your eyes to the amount of injustice in society and lawyers have to choose whether they want to serve justice or to serve the law, even if it is against the people's interest," she said at the awards ceremony.

Alexandrian El-Massry is a member of the Revolutionary Socialists and has worked with several rights groups including No to Military Trails for Civilians, the Front to Defend Alexandria Protesters, and the Refugees Solidarity Movement.

In her speech, she accused the Egyptian government of passing laws to silence the opposition.

El-Massry was also detained under Morsi and also during president Hosni Mubarak's reign.

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